September 2000
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The model is well-engineered, well-built and very strong. Material
selection for the wood parts appears good, with most of the balsa
being dense and heavy. The paintwork (Dutch Boy Enamel) is very good,
including the painted decorative roundels, stars and striping. The
numerals on the fuselage sides are of the vinyl decal variety. Each
kit is preassembled at the factory and disassembled for shipping. The
compartment hatches fit very tightly, and I was anxious to see how the
other components would fit together.
But something wasn't right. The model, as supplied, has an unfinished aluminum cowl and transition fairing, as did the original production Scout. This makes for a "Plain Jane" model, in my opinion. Fortunately, the illustration on the shipping box showed a photo of the "as supplied" model and a photo of a full-size Scout on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Mitchell Field, Long Island, N.Y. This aircraft has a yellow/black checkerboard pattem on its cowl and transition fairing, as well as blue roundels with a white star and red centers painted on its wheels. It was love at first sight, and before any electric conversion or It had to be recessed into the firewall so the prop would only extend V. inch beyond the cowl (above right). Dummy engine was screwed to the mount.assembly work was done, I took the wheels and fuselage to my flying/painting buddy, Bob Martin, who added these details using Krylon spray paint. What an improvement, from "Plain Jane" to adorable, after just eight hours of painting! |
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Motor/battery selection Selecting the proper motor/battery combination starts with a few assumptions. The first assumption is final flying weight. Ordinarily a wet-powered model can be converted to electric power at 1000/0-110% of specified flying weight with judicious use of lighter materials and using weight-saving building techniques. This lightening is acceptable because the electric motor's vibration free operation doesn't require as strong a structure as would a wet-powered model. However, an ARF doesn't allow any modification to its structure, so you can expect an ARF E-con's flying weight to be 1150/0-125% of specified flying weight. Since I was planning to use the new Sanyo 3000CR Ni-Cd cells with 3000 milliamp-hour (mAh) capacity, and weighing approximately 30% more than the more conventional Sanyo RC2000 Ni-Cd, with 2000 mAh capacity; I assumed this E-con model would weigh 125% of the specified flying weight (9 pounds) or 11 pounds, 4 ounces. This still provides a light to moderate wing loading of 18.5 ounces/square foot, for nimble maneuverability. |
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Here is the ARC (almost ready to cover) version of the Scout kit (above left). It is well-engineered and sturdy, yet still fairly light weight because of its stringer construction. Here's the covered version, or ARF version of the kit as it comes out of the box (above right), minus the roundels and rudder stripes. |
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